NBA Ref Sues Reporter Over Tweet

from the thin-skinned-ref dept

If you're a sports fan, complaining about or criticizing sports officials, referees, umpires, etc. is often a part of the pastime itself. And, of course, some of the complaints are often exaggerated (to say the least). While many refs have learned to be rather stoic in the face of criticism, it appears that NBA ref Bill Spooner is going in a different direction. He's suing a Minnesota Timberwolves beat reporter, Jon Krawczynski, for defamation over a tweet claiming that Spooner had promised to help Minnesota get back two points it may have lost to a bad call. Now, assuming that Spooner made no such statement, this certainly could be defamatory. Whether or not it was actually malicious, or whether or not any actual harm came from it seem like open questions. Instead, all this is doing is drawing that much more attention to the original comments and to Spooner's reaction. Perhaps just staying stoic is a better option.

Reader Comments

The tweet calls the ref's credibility into question, and is a very big issue. Something like this (if true) would probably cost him his job, would hurt the league's crediblity, and could even have repercussions all the way to Vegas (sports book).

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Seriously? Have you ever been to a stadium (or have you ever even witnessed a sports even)?

His credibility is not the only thing that is put into question, but also:

- His genetics (example: comparisons to various animals/animal parts like "Jackass!" or "Dickhead!");
- His nature (example: comparisons to excretions like "you piece of s***");
- The moral integrity of his ancestors (example: "son of a b****", or "b******");
- His moral integrity (example: insinuation of bribery like "they bought the ref!");
- His vision (example: "is the ref blind?!");
- etc,etc,etc.

Not to mention (death) threats or threats of physical violence against him and his family.

So, some hack reporter writing about him in a tweet saying that he might be biased, should probably be the least of his concerns.

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I have not a clue where in that statement he called the league out for anything. He made a statement similar to what many fans all over the US and abroad have done when a ref makes a bad call or feels that the ref made a bad call. I to have scorned NFL ref Ed Hochuli numerous times for his botched call during a Chargers Broncos game which the Chargers SHOULD HAVE WON!! Just sayin.

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"He has called into question the ref, and the league as a whole. Unless he has absolute proof, he just put his foot in it big time."

The league and whoever represents NBA officials as a group put themselves into question thanks to their support and subsequent reactions to Tim Donaghy.

Beyond, this is supremely stupid because you don't have to look at individual plays or games; this happense ALL THE TIME! They're called make-up calls and you can catch one in just about every single game in the NBA, NFL, and NHL. You may have heard about a recent college game in the Big 10 Tournement when one coach went up to the refs at the half and kept saying "11 to 1, boys. 11 to 1!"

What was he complaining about? His team only shot 1 freethrow while the other team shot 11. His team wasn't getting foul calls.

Somebody is calling him corrupt. Somebody is saying he is abusing his authority.

If those claims are untrue, then responding is certainly appropriate. Perhaps he doesn't have a problem with more people knowing about these allegations. Maybe all it will do is call into question the (questionable) capabilities of this reporter.

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How about the NBA tells us what happened to corrupt ref that threw games? He had said he was going to name names and reveal all the other players and refs tied into the mob that were involved in cheating. He disappeared after that and we never heard anything about it again. Screw the NBA and their Mob buddies.